Even in her dreams she was losing to Asterion.

It was all she could do to hold the shield between them. It was like a blindfold, between her eyes and her opponent's. She couldn't see what was coming, and when she saw glimpses at the edges the shield moved faster than her conscious mind to block whatever that was. A fight was like a sensory deprivation tank being attacked by a bear, hanging helpless, staring at nothing, as bone-jarring impacts fell upon her from all sides. 

But wouldn't it be easier if...

She was on her ass before she could finish the thought, before she'd realized she was acting on it, staring down the horrifyingly unpleasant reminder that this [i]wasn't[/i] Asterion. And that losing hadn't solved anything.

Then the Cat cut in with her questions.

"I, um... well that is..."

She sighed, struggling to get back on her aching feet. No hesitation there. The celestial lion had immolated her sloth in its radiant jaws and ever since then Canada had never heard a digit preceding the word 'push ups' she didn't like. Why couldn't training involve more pushups? Pushups were [i]awesome[/i]. 

Her eyes flicked between the Cat and Goudan. What did they know? Was this a rhetorical question, forcing her to say the embarrassing thing so that she had to take responsibility for it? Was it a test, and the answer in the front of her mind was actually wrong somehow? Did they genuinely have no strong ideas and she could get away with saying whatever? What did they want from her?

This was important because she [i]really[/i] didn't want to admit that she'd deliberately lowered her guard. That just for a moment she'd found the idea of defending herself less valuable than the idea of letting Goudan have the win. 

She opted to take refuge in literality. "Well, as you said, I hit my knee. And then I lowered my shield. And then I got knocked over." That was indeed the sequence of events, Canada, good job, gold star. "Hey, can we do some more strength training next?"

[Pierce the Mask: 2,1 - +1 for mundane, -2 for being angry, so that's a two]